Negative Case Selection
Justifications and Consequences for Set-Theoretic MMR
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2330787 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kim Sass Mikkelsen (0000-0002-5657-245X, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 739-771 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociological Methods & Research (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0049-1241 • E-ISSN: 1552-8294 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0049124115591015 |
| OpenAlex | W905782370 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 51 |
The combined usage of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and process tracing (PT) in set-theoretic multi-method research (MMR) holds great potential for reaching valid inferences. Established views of case selection after QCA hold that studying negative cases provides lessons about the causes of an outcome in a limited set of circumstances. In particular, recommendations focus on negative cases only if they contradict the analysis or if suitably similar positive match cases exist to leverage comparisons. By contrast, I argue that set-theoretic MMR can gain from studying negative cases even when these conditions do not hold. First, negative cases can give insights into why an outcome fails to occur. Second, they can help guard against theoretical inconsistency between explanations for the outcome and its absence. Third, they can ensure that the mechanisms producing the outcome and its absence are not too similar to be logically capable of resulting in different outcomes. Following these arguments, I recommend that studies of negative cases in set-theoretic MMR focus on failure mechanisms in carefully bounded populations, search for theoretical inconsistency among mechanisms, and focus in part on the mechanism proposed to produce the outcome
Contrast (vision) · Econometrics · Focus (optics) · Guard (computer science) · Leverage (statistics) · Machine learning · Mathematical economics · Outcome (game theory) · Political science · Process tracing · Qualitative comparative analysis · Set (abstract data type) · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Mathematics · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
When Epistemic Communities Fail
Network Effectiveness in Context
Causal mechanisms in sustainable urban mobility transitions
Mixed methods or mixed up
Rising despite the polycrisis? The European Parliament’s strategies of self-empowerment after Lisbon
Divergent UK responses to Chinese overseas investments
Tolerance in QCA
Qualitative Comparative Analysis Using R
Real Differences and Overlooked Similarities
Set‐theoretic Multimethod Research
Transforming Family Resemblance Concepts into Fuzzy Sets
A Unifying Framework for Causal Analysis in Set-Theoretic Multimethod Research
Integrating Cross-case Analyses and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Research
Explanatory Typologies as a Nested Strategy of Inquiry
Fuzzy-Set Social Science
Thinking and Working in the Midst of Things
Redesigning Social Inquiry
Europe Undivided
Process-Tracing Methods
A Tale of Two Cultures
Comparative Research Design
Administrative behavior
Rethinking Social Inquiry
International Organization
Case Studies and Causal Inference
A Tale of Two Cultures
The Oxford Handbook of Political Methodology
Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences
Multiple Dialogues, Layered Syntheses, and the Limits of Expansive Cumulation
Dialogue and the Reinforcement of Orthodoxy in International Relations
Case Studies and the Statistical Worldview
Uncovering deterministic causal structures
Between Deregulation and Social Pacts
When Are Concerted Reforms Feasible? Explaining the Emergence of Social Pacts in Western Europe
Policy Concertation in Europe
The Transformation of the Swedish Model
Policy reform and the decline of corporatism in Sweden
How the Cases You Choose Affect the Answers You Get
Analytic Eclecticism in the Study of World Politics
The Politics of Common Knowledge
The Nuclear Taboo
Coordination as a Political Problem in Coordinated Market Economies
Power, Flexibility, and the Breakdown of Centralized Wage Bargaining
Internationalization and the Social Democratic Model
Context and Causal Mechanisms in Political Analysis
How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace
Concept Misformation in Comparative Politics
The Possibility Principle
Integrating Cross-case Analyses and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Research
Explanatory Typologies as a Nested Strategy of Inquiry
Case Studies Nested in Fuzzy-set QCA on Sufficiency
Combining QCA and Process Tracing in Set-Theoretic Multi-Method Research
The Logic of Process Tracing Tests in the Social Sciences
Two-Level Theories and Fuzzy-Set Analysis
Averting 'Disruption and Reversal
Social Mechanisms
Causal Mechanisms in the Social Sciences
The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry
States and Social Revolutions
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,4 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2026 (11) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |